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Leonard Baskin and Ted Hughes

THE ARTIST AND THE POET

In 1983 the poet laureate Ted Hughes and renowned American printmaker and sculptor Leonard Baskin, his collaborator  for many years on illustrated books of Hughes's poems, took part in an audio recording in which they discussed their longstanding friendship and the nature of their work together.

The recording was made at the home of the Baskin family, then resident in Devon, close to where Hughes lived. Originally intended to be included in a tv film about them that was never completed, this lively, entertaining and informative dialogue, previously unpublished, is now the basis of a forty-minute video film exploring in intimate detail the genesis of such key works as CROW and CAVE BIRDS.

The video incorporates extracts from readings by Hughes of his own poems, as well as a mass of previously unseen photographs of the interlocutors, and extensive illustration from Baskin's prints and works of sculpture.

Premiered before an invited audience at Exeter University, shown at the 2009 Ways With Words literary festival at Dartington, and most recently at the Dylan Thomas literary festival at Swansea, this acclaimed video film is now available on DVD.

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